IT Confidence Is On the Rise

In July, the U.S. job market experienced a dip downward from June while still maintaining a lead over the year prior – 162,000 jobs were added in 2013 as opposed to the only 153,000 added in 2012. In spite of sluggish growth, it seems that members of the IT industry are increasingly confident about their job prospects. According to a Randstad study, 58 percent of IT professionals remain confident about their job security and 30 percent (up from 27 percent) believe the economy is getting stronger. What’s the origin of that increased confidence?

If you look at some of the statistics for software developers alone, you might shrug off the question as being outright ludicrous. The median annual salary for a Software Developer is a whopping $92,500. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that between 2010 and 2020, software developer demand will leap up by 30 percent. Plus, as everyone from healthcare providers to the federal government continue to abandon paper pulp in favor of pixel based alternatives, the stock of software developers only continues to grow higher. That doesn’t even take into account IT security, big data, or any of the other trending tech discipline.

So, though this month may have been a road bump for general hiring, IT professionals are trending more towards optimism. Hopefully, hiring managers will prove their increasing optimism to be worthwhile. In the same Randstad report, 53 percent of hiring managers reported that they intended to hire IT professionals during the next year, which remains steadily in line with their 2012 response.